1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a weather strip retainer for retaining a weather strip onto a vehicle body, particularly to a weather strip retainer integrally formed with a drip molding, and a method for producing such weather strip retainer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In vehicles such as automobiles, a weather strip for sealing a space between a door and a vehicle body is usually mounted to the door of the vehicle; but in the case where it is difficult to mount the weather strip onto the door (e.g., in the case of a sashless door), the weather strip is attached to the vehicle body via a weather strip retainer. Recently, weather strip retainers have been formed integrally with a drip molding to reduce the number of parts.
Illustrated in FIG. 9 is an example of such conventional weather strip retainer with a drip molding. The illustrated weather strip retainer comprises a front pillar mount section 80 to be mounted on a front pillar of the vehicle body, a roof mount section 82 horizontally extending along to be mounted on a roof of the vehicle body, and a center pillar mount section 84 to be mounted on a center pillar of the vehicle body. The front pillar mount section 80 and the roof mount section 82 are integral with each other. The front pillar mount section 80 extends obliquely downward from the horizontally extending roof mount section 82. A drip molding 86 is integrally formed on an outer edge portion of the front pillar mount section 80 and the roof mount section 82.
The center pillar mount section 84 in which the drip molding 86 is not provided is formed separately from the front pillar mount section 80 and the roof mount section 82 and is connected to the roof mount section 82 at the rear end portion thereof (right side as viewed in FIG. 9) via a joint member 83 produced by a press forming or the like with oriented substantially in a vertical direction.
The reference numeral 85 in FIG. 9 designates mounting holes for screws for attaching the respective mount sections 80, 82, 84 to the vehicle body.
Shown in FIG. 10 is a detail of the mounting structure of the roof mount section 82 of the weather strip retainer. The roof mount section 82 has a shape opening outward of the vehicle (left side as viewed in FIG. 10) and a weather strip WS is fit to the inside of the roof mount section 82. A drip molding base 88 is formed further outwardly from an outer edge (an upper edge as viewed in FIG. 10) of the roof mount section 82. A seal layer 89 made of rubber or synthetic resin is fixedly attached on the front surface of the drip molding base 88. In this way, the drip molding 86 is formed.
At the back of the roof mount section 82 (right side as viewed in FIG. 10), sealing lips 91, 92 projecting continuously from the roof mount section 82 along the longitudinal direction thereof are fixedly attached. A screw 96 is inserted through the mounting hole 85 from outside and fitted in a gromet 94 attached on a vehicle body panel (a roof panel 90 in FIG. 10), the roof mount section 82 is attached to the roof panel 90 with the sealing lips 91, 92 being in contact with an outer surface of the roof panel 90.
The front pillar mount section 80 and the center pillar mount section 84 have the same structure as the roof mount section 82 shown in FIG. 10 except that the center pillar mount section 84 has no drip molding 86.
With this structure, when the door is closed, a marginal portion of a window glass G of the door is brought into press-contact with the weather strip WS, and thereby the window glass of the door is sealed at the marginal portion thereof to prevent wind and rain from entering the interior of the vehicle body through a gap between the window glass G and the vehicle body.
However, the conventional weather strip retainer has the following problems.
In the conventional weather strip retainer 10, the center pillar mount section 84 with no drip molding 86 is formed separately from the front pillar mount section 80 and the roof mount section 82 having the drip molding and is connected thereto via the joint member 83. Thus, the weather strip retainer 10 needs three components in total, i.e., the front pillar mount section 80 and roof mount section 82; the center pillar mount section 84; and the joint member 83. This makes the mounting structure complicated and increases assembling steps, which thus providing a very obstacle in cost reduction.
Besides, the weather strip retainer is separated into three parts. Accordingly, the weather strip retainer is more liable to cause a gap than continuously extending retainers, consequently lowering the sealability disadvantageously.